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Horror is a genre anime can do, but does not do much in likes of what North America or Europe does. There is The Omen, Sunshine, Babadook, Let the Right One In, or anything based on Stephen King like The Shining. Some of it is realism that is required with location and real living actors. Some is a lack of demand for it in anime fandom, so instead we get a lot of lolicon, mecha, and moe. Anime has a hard time tapping into what people fear and has a lack of care for the characters that can drive it.

We are missing out on making unforgettable speeches that inspire or provoke the viewer. Any examples from anime tend to come off cheesy, random, awkward or generic whenever they try. By cheesy I mean mood killing, but live-action movies do it better and real life historical people even more. Poor wages for the labor that work on Japanese animation is not something that will help. Hellsing’s I love war speech all there is? Some of it is also lost in translation.

Anime with “PV” or previews and live-action with trailers are the norm, so that already tells what blows. Previews of anime are little short bits with people moving their faces, moving around, and have over-prominent music. There is no hook, no tease, or even an idea of plot. Sure having a trailer tell you the whole movie kills interest and goes too far, but I would believe the goal is to attract hype and create discussion.

Politics could be another, but Gasaraki has that covered with military, family, and corruption. Could have gone saying that it is since so few remember much from it or know of it. Perhaps a bit in fantasy or action anime with historical themes, so I’ll let this one go.

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Good thing that never happens since I prefer physical releases. Most anime companies of the west are very conservative when choosing which anime or manga they want licensed. They pick up what is new and prefer further what is already in great discussion online to play it safe. Most are not like Discotek Media where they prefer to re-licensed older anime or the boy-love niche company Digital Manga Publishing. Just what is easy. more…

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A couple days ago big news hit that Japan has made the possession of child pornography illegal. Most big countries already have such laws, however this law differs in that fiction such as animation and comics are excluded. Big media companies like CNN state the exclusion is from large powerful lobby groups that protect the interests of the anime and manga industry. The law is also much softer than most countries in where the person charged faces a year is prison or a $10,000 fine. In many countries people have much harsher penalties like Canada’s 20 years of imprisonment or public online databases.

People do not want children harmed or abused, but there is a lot of bias and assumptions floating around. Two big ones are animated or drawn depictions of children are real children and that people who like fictional characters are also attracted to real children. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund debunks the views they oppose from the CNN article linked above and what they believe what the law will do in Japan. One side accepts that fictional works are still pornographic and the other suggests there needs to be scientific evidence that such creations are harmful.

With that said the political satirist Jon Stewart from the cable show The Daily Show took a stab at the news. His views are known as liberal, but in my opinion he has always seemed “Democrat.” Someone that is on the left of center and leaning towards liberal, but not by very much since the US is not very liberal. In the video he states the new law is embarrassingly late and “How can a lobby for a harmful, destructive industry take precedence over the protection of children?” He then compares the industry lobby groups for anime and manga to be similar to The National Rifle Association in the US. They are supposedly trying to defend companies that are willing to make money at the cost of children’s lives and well-being.

I am pro-gun regulation and a fan of anime and manga, so I find his comparison of media to weapons designed to kill to be outrageous. Both have differing worlds of psychology, science, and societal factors behind what the industries produce.

Normally delving deep into small changes and tweaks to the site would not be noticed or interesting, but this time there is enough. Other than layout fixes for the blog and forum, there are:

Anonymous Forum Posting – Guess who
Post anonymously with other users anonymous and not. There is a lot of fun to be had, so lets not get too crazy here. On the right there will some check boxes as you make a forum post or thread. Select “Post as anonymous.” Administrators and moderators however can look up the poster if it is required to enforce site guidelines and rules.

Recommendations and Answers – See for yourself
Find more anime, manga, and manhwa you like from whatever you give to help. You can even find anime you cannot remember the name of or what something is from artwork. The topic starter may select the correct or most helpful answer. The more details, examples, and preferences you give the better.

Link Directory Updates – Add some links
Top submitters, latest links, and popular links are all new. New categories include conventions, old anime websites, and member links. There were also some odd bugs that have been fixed.

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Nijigahara Holograph could be summed up as a surreal slice-of-life with sprinkles of folklore and mild darkness. Shallow characters you do not know and incoherent story telling makes me not care so hard. Here is a table with a doll for you that does not have anything to do with anything. It requires several reads or getting further in to know who is who when the characters are school kids and then adults. Let us flood the panels with Boogiepop Phantom butterflies that could give symbolism, but let us not give them any so we can give a poor attempt at abstraction and supernatural elements that will not exist. Perhaps I should not be hard on it because it is suppose to have a dreamlike atmosphere with its progression, but I will because because of regret.

Leaving much to the reader to imagine works best if there is something left for them to imagine about or at least a setting and/or characters that can stimilate imagination. With this manga the reader is forced to flip back and forth between the past and present with characters you will not care about. There is not any horror in Nijigahara Holograph despite boasting from hipster bloggers and sites that slap a genre on whatever for a lack of a better genre to classify it. The issue of not knowing which character is which and again the lack of care leads to just simple dark themed panels.

Artwork is of overall solid quality with most effort in the characters than backgrounds. Many pages and panels can either be seen as minimalist or lazy depending on expectations and preference. New chapter, so lets add a little box on a blank white page as a stronger example. Hair lacks layers and detail for characters and background surroundings are too clean and lacking mood for my tastes. Main exception for the lack of mood however is the warm and cultured summertime’y moments that may fill you with nostalgia of warm summer days outside. That of course is dependent on the time of day of reading this, your local climate, and if your school years were remotely similar.

Some of the reason for my purchase of Nijigahara Holograph is the severe lack of new manga licenses, new volumes of what little I follow, and few manga of interest. In short it was the awesome cover art, descriptions, and most of all desperation. My lesson from reading this has been not to give into impulses (pre-ordered) based on deprivation and instead look to older overlooked manga. Perhaps returning it to Amazon would have been a wise, too.

Fantagraphics gave this a wonderful hardcover like the great manga Wandering Son and it has a wonderful printed smell. I will not give much hints to the ending, however it is not original.